Fish feeding devices are known in the market. However, heretofore there have been no fish feeding devices that are used in conjunction with other devices to enable the playing of a game.
It is well known that fish, and other aquatic animals such as dolphins, whales, and seals, generally appear to be quiet and peaceful creatures. Generally, there is not much that they do that is eye-catching, or that arouses continued attraction, unless of course they are trained to do certain acts. Most of their activity occurs at feeding time. Accordingly, anyone who owns an aquarium, or has access to a body of fresh or salt water such as a tank, a pond, a lagoon, a lake, or even the ocean, can turn watching fish into a more amusing and entertaining experience, by appearing to engage the fish, or the like, in a game of sports, or a game of chance. In order to do this, one requires a ball, or the like, filled with food that will attract the fish, or the like, and a floating game device to define the sport or game. The movement of the ball, or the like, in the device defines the action in the game. Thus, the fish can "play" a game.
As discussed above, there are a number of prior art devices which are directed to devices for automatically feeding fish. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,505 issued to Cross et al. shows a fish feeder that includes a body that floats on the water that has a column therein for receiving fish food. The body sits in the water such that only the lowermost capsule of food is in the water. The capsule of food is water soluble such that, once the capsule disintegrates, a charge of fish food is released into the water. Therefore, food is periodically released into the water on the disintegration of the capsule. Accordingly, there would be no reason for a fish to go to the fish feeder, rather, the fish would merely wait until the capsule dissolved, and then eat the food. Therefore, during feeding there would be no clear incentive for the fish to move the fish feeder.
Another example of a fish feeder is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,028 issued to Baensch et al. This fish feeder includes a tubular portion for receiving the fish food and a floating member attached thereto. The tubular portion has an opening in the bottom thereof such that when the fish feeder is floating in the water, the fish can access the fish food. The fish food body contains a plurality of food particles that do not readily dissolve or disintegrate when they contact water. The fish food bodies are dimensioned to correspond with the inside of the tubular portion, and are arranged such that the contact point between adjacent fish food bodies is minimized, so as to minimize transfer from the lowest most body to the next adjacent body. In order for a fish to obtain some of the fish food the fish must go to the fish feeder and take the food out of the fish feeder, the food is not released automatically into the fish tank. A drawback to use of this fish feeder is that it needs to be used in conjunction with food bodies that are particularly dimensioned to correspond with the tubular portion.
Another prior art fish feeder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,719 issued to Holden. The fish feeder is for use with live fish food. This fish feeder has an aperture in the bottom thereof which has a wicking plug. Thereby, over time, water from the aquarium slowly enters the container through the wick. The container is provided with an opening in one of the side walls, so that when the container has descended enough such that the opening is in the water, the live food in the container can leave the container and be consumed by the fish. This container clearly is only of particular use in conjunction with live fish.